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HOW DO I HARVEST MY PLANT???

I am growing one female bud plant and im not sure what the name of it but it smells very very skunky and its got crystals all over as if its like rolled and dipped in sugar. I have been growing it for like 2 and a half months indoor. I do it with a HPS 400 watt lamp with a 55,000 lumens light bulb. My plant may be a little bit of a hermie but what i have heard, its still good so far because most of my buds on my plant is BRIGHT GREEN chunky nice with orange red hairs along with white hairs too and its making my plant leading to the side because of the buds.

My question is how do I harvest my plant when it's time to pull it out. I did a bunch of research and I still can't understand it because there is too many of them. So can someone please tell me what is the most effective simple way to harvest my plant?? How long do I dry it for? Do I hang my plant upside down? Do i cover it with a black trash bag? Please tell me how to do this in the most effective simple way? I want to learn how to do this really bad.
Thanks

When it is time to harvest your bud (patience is a virtue), you will want to get a bucket (possibly two), a trash bag, and small scissors that you feel comfortable using. You will also want some place to hang your buds; a piece of string attached to two walls via tape will suffice.

Setup: Lay the trash bag flat on the ground to catch any small pieces of leaf that fall. Put the bucket in the center of the trash bag. Turn on the stereo or pop in a movie. Crack your knuckles and prepare for one of the worst (albeit rewarding) parts about growing marijuana.

Step one: Using your scissors, cut a side branch off at the main stem.

Step two: Cut (or pull off with a downward motion) all large fan leaves and drop them in the bucket.

Step three: Using your scissors again, trim along the side of all of the buds to remove the smaller leaves. If you are not sure how far down to trim, use the pistils as a guide and try to go as close as possible without cutting too many of them off. Let the clippings fall into the bucket with the fan leaves, or into a second bucket for future hash processing. You can also use your discretion and choose to leave some of the smaller leaves if they have a lot of resin on them.

Step four: Check over the bud for any missed leaves and then hang, by the lowest bud, upside down on the string.

Repete from step one until your entire plant is harvested and hanging to dry. If you find that your fingers and/or scissors are too sticky to continue working, try washing them off with vegetable oil. Fold up the trash bag and throw it in the bucket for later use.

Drying and curing your bud:

The only additional items that you need here are glass mason jars. They are available from most any grocery store.

Check your buds daily by bending a stem. If it bends, check again tomorrow. What you are waiting for is for the stem to snap cleanly into two pieces when you attempt to bend it. It should not bend, even a little bit.

Once most of your stems snap into two, it is time to start placing them into the glass mason jars. Get the bucket that you put the fan leaves into and lay out the folded up trash bag. Remove the dried buds and stems from the line and start snipping the buds off from each stem and onto the trash bag. Throw the stems into the bucket with the fan leaves. Once done, remember to clean up and put all marijuana related garbage into the bucket for later disposal.

The buds will go into the mason jars. Only fill the jars about half-way though. Once all of your bud is in the jars, put them in a cool dark place.

Once daily for a week or two, shake the jars gently and then open the top for about a minute.

After a few weeks your buds will be at their full flavour potential and ready for your smoking enjoyment. You can now fill the jars to the brim with buds for long-term storage.

If I didn't cover anything here, please let me know.
If you have any questions, please let me know.

"some of my sweets be tight and some of my sweets be fucked up, but all of my sweets gon' blow so killa smoke gets sucked up..." -Bun B"But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."-Deceleration of Independence

Lay out a black trash bag and get a bucket and put in the middle of it. Cut a side branch off at the main stem. Then cut the big leaves to small leaves into bucket till it looks like a bud.

Then hang the bud upside down attached to a string but can I do it in my closet? and I must keep it DARK? Right?

Then everyday I check my bud and I bend them. If it bends still needs drying but if it snaps off its ready. Once it snaps I get the bud off the string and I cut them into little perfect nuggets and place them in Manson jars and put the rest of the stems into the bucket.

Store the Mason jars in a dark cool place for a week or two till its smokable. Am I right on everything so far??

Why do we have to do that? Like what does it do to the bud? Make it more potent?

The jar lets it dry even. It is kinda like a good cigar. You have to keep it at the right humidity for it to burn right and have the best flavor. If you leave it out it will dry to fast on the outside and the inside will still be wet. Or it will just dry out to much and then it will be way to harsh. This is what I understand anyway.

Then hang the bud upside down attached to a string but can I do it in my closet? and I must keep it DARK? Right?

You can do it in your closet. Keeping it dark is simply a recommendation.

Originally Posted by css6999

Why do we have to do that? Like what does it do to the bud? Make it more potent?

The poster above me pretty much answered it correctly. Two things happen while the buds are in the jar. First, it allows the moisture that is deep inside of the buds to even out with the extreme dryness of the surface of the bud. Essentially, the water from inside the bud will move into the air inside of the jar and then be absorbed by the surface of the bud. You air out the jars daily to remove excessive moisture from the air inside of the jars. If you didn't do this process inside of a jar then your buds would be so dry after two weeks that they would crumble to a powder. The second reason that you let them 'cure' for two weeks is so that the plant has a chance to convert the chlorophyll inside of the buds into something else.

Pull a bud off of your plant and quick dry it in your microwave for 30 seconds or so until it is dry. Stick it in a bowl and smoke it. Notice that nasty fresh burning grass that you taste? Well that doesn't happen with a properly 'cured' bud. It is all about flavour, not potency.

Yes it is ok to do that. I really don't know if you can do it over and over again. I know one time will work ok if done right. Do a search for reveging and you should get all the info you need. Also if you have harvested you plant and cut off all the leafs then you are SOL this time around. You have to leave some of the leafs inorder to reveg.